World Ocean Radio

About

World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays on a wide range of ocean topics. Available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide.

World Ocean Observatory

30 Episodes

Episodes

08/21/2025 | 5 MINS

The Ocean as Peacebuilder

This week Peter Neill is reading from an article written by representatives of the UN IOC and the Natural Science Foundation of China, based on the concept of ocean as... more

08/06/2025 | 4 MINS

The Moon and the Ocean

From an island perch in Maine, host of World Ocean Radio Peter Neill recently witnessed a full moon rising over the Atlantic Ocean. The silent, majestic way that it rose... more

07/30/2025 | 5 MINS

What If?

This week: Is there no time left to explore other ways of seeing, being, solving, and surviving? Where can we place our energy and imagination to serve as functions of... more

07/23/2025 | 5 MINS

Who Cares About the Ocean?

On June 8th, World Ocean Day, the new film OCEAN, presented by Sir David Attenborough, debuted in theatres and maritime museums around the world, a celebration of the ocean’s beauty... more

07/18/2025 | 5 MINS

AI and the Ocean

This week, host Peter Neill reads verbatim an AI response to an action posed. He asked Chat GPT to write 750 words in the style of Peter Neill on World... more

07/09/2025 | 5 MINS

Why War?

Why is there so much war? So much strife in the Middle East: what are we fighting for? This week Peter Neill,founder of W2O and host of World Ocean Radio,... more

This week we're discussing the circulation of water worldwide, and the importance of our waterways--canals in particular--as the great highways and distribution centers of our busy lives, now storing and... more

This week on World Ocean Radio we are discussing the Ocean Literacy movement and the need for more ocean science and fresh water understanding in the classroom. Ocean Literacy is... more

06/12/2025 | 5 MINS

Apprenticing: A Manifesto

Apprenticing has long been thought of as a term to describe someone working beside a master craftsperson to learn a trade and to refine a professional skill: whether it be... more

06/04/2025 | 4 MINS

What is Ocean Day Meant to Do?

Each year on June 8th we celebrate World Ocean Day to recognize our relationship with the ocean, the vast watery world that covers 71% of our planet. Despite gains in... more

05/29/2025 | 5 MINS

Circulation

We live in a world of invisible circulation. It swirls in us and around us at all times, transporting and exchanging all things good and bad, some natural, some man-made.... more

Will the children set us free? Has it come to that? Have we abandoned the future for our children to solve, leaving them accountable for what we have failed to... more

05/14/2025 | 5 MINS

15 Years of World Ocean Radio

This week marks the 750th episode of World Ocean Radio: 15 years of weekly short audio that reaches millions around the globe, sharing concepts, demands, and solutions related to ocean... more

04/30/2025 | 4 MINS

Running Home

This week on World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill reflects on the importance of water in our lives, our culture, our memories, our very being. Water, he argues, is the... more

Pope Francis, outspoken voice for climate and the environment, passed away on Monday, April 21st. Throughout his reign as leader of the Catholic Church, he was very clear in his... more

04/16/2025 | 5 MINS

What About the Land?

Earth Day is April 22nd. In honor of our watery planet we revisit a land-centric episode this week on World Ocean Radio. What About the Land? 40% of the planet is... more

04/10/2025 | 5 MINS

Revelations by Salt

Discovery of a curriculum developed for coastal Africa some years ago sent World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill on a journey of discovery and revelation about salt as a construct... more

03/28/2025 | 5 MINS

Terraqueous

ter·ra·que·ous/terˈākwēəs/Adjective: consisting of land and water Mud season: a special time of year in the northeastern corner of the United States, when winter and spring collide in a soggy muck:... more

03/20/2025 | 5 MINS

World Water Day is March 22nd

March 22nd is World Water Day, a celebration of what Jacques Cousteau called The Great Hydrosphere, expanded beyond Ocean to include the entirety of the water cycle: the one natural... more

03/07/2025 | 5 MINS

Co-Relation

This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill shares a smart, succinct new title from the Forerunners: Ideas First series entitled "Coralatations" by Melody Jue. The book is a... more

03/03/2025 | 5 MINS

Ocean Literacy: A Call for Action

Ocean Literacy is a bottom-up movement driven by classroom teachers who understand the full implication of education, adaptation, and innovation for our future. In Venice, Italy, in 2024, a conference... more

"Power is like water. It flows all around us at all times. Sometimes it takes the liquid form of politics-in-action...Sometimes it takes the solid form of settled law: policy is... more

02/10/2025 | 5 MINS

Eco-Psychology

Eco-psychology studies the relationships between people and nature, and seeks to develop ways to expand the emotional connections between individuals and the natural world. There is progression in the term:... more

01/29/2025 | 5 MINS

Eudaemonism: A Word for the Ocean

Eudaemonism: What does it mean? What does it have to do with happiness? And what is its context for the ocean? Tune in to find out.  About World Ocean Radio... more

01/23/2025 | 5 MINS

A Distillation of Purpose

What are the five key reasons for ocean conservation? What are the five areas where progress matters most? With the world in an off-axis state of turmoil, W2O founder Peter... more

01/16/2025 | 4 MINS

An Exemplary Place in Iceland

This week on World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill shares views and observations of the town of Isafjordur, Iceland, and the values it possesses that give the area its unique... more

01/10/2025 | 4 MINS

What's in a Knot?

KNOT: a word with many definitions: from a tight constriction to something hard to solve; a cluster of persons or things; an ornamental ribbon; a closed curve in three dimensional... more

12/30/2024 | 4 MINS

At the Fishhouses

At the Fishhouses, is among our favorite poems here at World Ocean Observatory. In its richly-detailed mastery, it distills poet Elizabeth Bishop’s seaside meditations, evokes the clarity of meaning contained... more

12/23/2024 | 4 MINS

Christmas at Sea

Each holiday season on World Ocean Radio we return with a special reading of "Christmas at Sea", an evocative poem by Robert Louis Stevenson written in 1883. Stevenson, the son... more

12/19/2024 | 5 MINS

A Credo for the World Ocean

This week we're providing our listeners with a list of intentions that describe the World Ocean Observatory's statement of beliefs that drives all action. And we provide suggestions for those... more

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